CompassRose: May 2008

We departed Ft Lauderdale, FL on April 7th arriving in Annapolis on May 2^nd. We had a wonderful time with Rob and Sue on Papillion who accompanied us for the three weeks. We are always surprised at the end of our trips how 40 to 50 miles a day adds up to 1000 miles. The weather was great with only 2 or 3 cold days early in the trip. Compass Rose ran great with no major mechanical problems to deal with. Coming up the ICW in Florida, we lowered the mast to get under the many bridges between Ft. Lauderdale and Titusville. Don’t know how much time it saved but it does save some of the aggravation of waiting for the bridge openings, sometimes in very strong currents.

Vero Beach: On mooring ball for two nights waiting for Rob and Sue to catch up to us.

St. Augustine: anchored and spent a wonderful day walking around “America’s Oldest City”. Took a guided tour of the Flagler Hotel/Flagler College, built by Henry Flagler in 1887. Bridge of Lions is still being rebuilt.

Photo: Flagler College

We spent 2 day in Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island. Fernandina is considered the birthplace of the shrimping industry. There are shrimp boats everywhere trawling the waters from dawn to dusk, dragging their nets along the bottom for their daily catch. Pam can’t get to the market fast enough to buy our many pounds of this culinary delight. Like Bubba says, you can barbecue it, boil it, bake it, sauté it ….. we love them.

We rode our bikes to Fort Clinch which is at the northern tip of Amelia Island This Fort is one of the most complete brick forts in the country and was originally built on this point during the War of 1812 to prevent any more British invasions. We took a self guided tour of the fort’s restored buildings, including furnished barracks, jail cells, and the fort hospital. The park like setting includes biking, nature trails, fishing piers and a museum of the fort. We had a wonderful 12 mile bike ride and a picnic in the park.

Photo: Rob, Sue, Pam & John at Ft Clinch

We were able to spend two days in Beaufort, SC one being our 39^th wedding anniversary. This is one of Pam’s favorite stops along the ICW so it worked out that we were able to celebrate our anniversary in Beaufort.

Photo: Harbor in Beaufort, SC (at a very low tide)

Georgetown – Great dinner at Goat Island Grill; an afternoon spent walking through a very old cemetery with some very old trees.

Photo: South Carolina's "Champion Oak"...over 570 years old!

Photo: Headstone of two British officers killed in 1779 during The Revolution in Georgetown, SC

Photo: Papillion being borded and inspected by the Coast Guard. Passed with flying colors.

Myrtle Beach – Dinner aboard Papillion

Oriental, NC – Dinner at Snappers with LadyHawke, Happy Feet and Papillion

Belhaven, NC- like many small towns in America, Belhaven’s stores are closing and the stores still in business were closed after 2pm on Saturday. We could not even get our afternoon ice cream. Spent some time in the hardware store and we were able to do our wash. We took Rob and Sue to the famous Belhaven Memorial Museum. The museum, located in the old Town Hall, is filled with artifacts collected by Mary Eva Blount Way (1869-1962). She was an avid collector of everything, such as 30,000 buttons, a two headed pig in a jar, many old framing tools and this goes on and on. If you have to, and I mean “have to” stop in Belhaven, this is a must see point of interest.

Photo: Sue and Pam doing laundry in Belhaven, NC

Elizabeth City - Anchored overnight to get an early start through the Dismal Swamp. It was a cloudy morning and we had rain most of the afternoon. The Swamp was truly dismal. Pulled into Portsmouth about 3 pm.

Photo: Locking Through the canal

Photo: The Dismal Swamp Canal

Portsmouth, VA- Compass Rose and Papillion pulled into the south basin in Portsmouth, VA. Pam, John, Rob and Sue walked around town visiting antiques shops and seeing the on- going renovations to restore this quaint histories seaport. The winds were blowing 15-20 so we decided to stay another night. We took the pedestrian ferry over to downtown Norfolk to take in the sights. We toured the Mariners Museum and the decks of the battleship USS Wisconsin. That evening we enjoyed a movie and

dinner at the Commodore with Rob and Sue. The Commodore Theater is a luxuriously restored 1945 Art Deco style motion picture theatre presenting first run films with a very good restaurant within this one-screen movie palace . Great place and a must-do every year.

Photo: Departing Portsmouth

We departed Portsmouth at 7:30 am (4/29) and headed out through Hampton Roads. We entered the bay with 3 to 5 foot waves on the bow. After three hours of very uncomfortable seas we pulled into Mobjack Bay to wait out the winds. After a two hour wait the bay calmed allowing an easy trip to Deltaville.

Deltaville, VA– Rafted with Papillion Photo: Early morning departure from Deltaville